best to do their stuff. you've done an amazing job. today has been a testing day for you. you're the best weather man i've ever worked with. thank you for everything you've done tonight. keep a lot of people informed. we greatly appreciate it. that's more for us. more on superstorm sandy all night on cnn. hello, welcome to cnn's special coverage of the super storm sandy. we want to welcome our international viewers as well from around the world. it's 1:00 in the morning east coast time here in atlanta and we have reporters up and down the east coast bringing us the latest developments all hour long. really into the night. no hype, overestimates or anything on this one. damage estimates are in the billions. sandy is big. sandy is powerful and she is a killer. already at least 12 people have

been reported dead in the u.s. five alone in new york. 5.3 million people are without power. 23 states are under wind advisories. damage from the wind alone could top $3 million. and sandy is already response iblg f67 deaths in caribbeans. >> roads flooded out. the water rising above the cars in some locals. this historic superstorm made landfall over the most populated areas of the u.s. wind damage, power outages, storm surges, inland flooding, you name it, even snowstorms are threatening the lives and homes of 60 people from virginia to mags ma massachusetts. >> look at this.

this is the crane atop a luxury manhattan skyscraper. now it's 730 stories. going up to 90. it's swaying back and forth over west 57th street. let's get to meteorologist ivan cabrera joining us with the latest on the superstorm. where is sandy right now? >> sandy is inland at this point here. unlike a hurricane, it's going to be a long one here. this is not weakening. remember, when a hurricane that makes landfall, we're relaxing a bit. the storm gets the energy from the ocean here. this is no longer a hurricane, no longer a tropical system, it's a hybrid storm. it's post-tropical, nor'easters from the mid-atlantic to northeast. it gets its energy from the differences in temperature here. we have cold air to the north and west, south and east.

sandy is glad to be inland because it's merging with the jet stream. with an upper level disturbance so everything is coming together for this to continue to be a mess through the overnight. very heavy rainfall. the snow coming down, just incredible amounts across portions of the appalachians. we'll have incredible pictures over the next couple of days. and the winds will still be howling. you see the snow falling. accumulations, upwards of 18 inches so far. we'll be talking about general accumulations from 2 to 3 feet. this is -- i'm still trying to wrap my head around this. we're tracking hurricane and tracking a blizzard at the same time. this is all from the same storm. this is why we call it a super storm. this has never happened before. it is very possible that we will never see this again in our lifetime. it's an event that's very rare. conditions that made this don't

come around very often. the last event was back in 1991. that super storm and halloween didn't even make landfall here. the good news in coastal new york, the tide is going out so that seawater flooding has abated now so we're receding. the problem is we have another high tide coming up in the morning and that could bring renewed flooding. we'll be here throughout and keeping posted as new information comes in. still blockbuster storm, not weakening at all. >> any idea when that next high tide approximately would be? >> it's coming up around 9 a.m. >> i don't think we'll see incredible flooding we saw with the 13.3 record that had never been seen at battery park but we'll see the potential for flooding as tide comes in because the winds will still be coming in from the same direction. we'll have to watch that very closely.

i think in the morning we'll see incredible pictures and the scope of sandy will be brought to light. >> superstorm, we're talking about 900 miles to 1,000 miles wide. that's pretty extraordinary. >> and 60 million people. >> thank you so much, ivan. at this point many people are being forced to ride out sandy in the dark now. 5.3 million people without power including tens of thousands of people in lower manhattan and staten island after a transformer exploded at con edison plant on 14th street. take a look at pretty extraordinary video there. con edison vice president says workers don't know exactly what caused that massive blow out. we're talking about an area dha services an awful lot of people in new york city. take a glimpse of the situation. community and utility companies are dealing with right now.

power outages from d.c., maine, impacting an awful lot of folks. new york and new jersey account for nearly a half of the power outages that we're seeing. >> and this super storm slammed into the jersey shore as it made landfall a few hours ago. and sandy has been relentless and taking a deadly toll, unleashly extremely dangerous winds. as we speak, police say at least three people have died from fallen trees. two of those deaths about 30 miles west of new york city. new jersey governor chris christie repeatedly warned people about the potential dangers earlier. >> i'm very disappointed some didn't listen to my order and i'm concerned it might lead to

loss of life. >> reports of homes flooded under several feet of water and several rescues are under way, including those stranded in their cars. in their cars, can you imagine, trying to escape. >> i'm scared to death. so many people are going to die today. >> authorities are working to evacuate hundreds of areas. west atlantic city, hundreds of people there where waters are dangerously high. >> let's check in with emergency crews in new jersey. joining us on the phone, jenry paul emergency director from morris county, new jersey. update us on the latest. how many people without power. what are you able to do? what kind of assistance can you provide? >> we have a significant power issue going on as long as the strong winds that have hit us here. currently we have 163,000 at

9:09 without power so about 83% of the service -- power service dliry in our county without power at this point. it really hit us significantly. our call volume doubled at :00 this evening. currently they had about 3,000 calls for the day so it's been an extremely busy day. we had two deaths as a result of a tree falling on a car, a family of four, two children and their parents. the children escaped with minor injuries but the parents, unfortunately, succumbed to the tree falling on the car. we've had a devastating day in morris county. we've had firemen trapped in firetrucks. we have a fire house with they are trapped inside the fire house because they can't go out due to fire wires. our operation center is

extremely busy. people are doing a great job. we're going to work through it throughout the evening until tomorrow. >> clearly you anticipated there would be emergency situations but in terms of firetrucks, some of your first responders being stuck stuck because of high water, et cetera. that's something to anticipate. what are you able to do to offer assistance to them so they can continue to assist your residents? >> we've actually sent emergency crews out to help the emergency crews. we have a coordinated effort here. we're able to tap into resources in other parts of the county and first responders that have gone out and helped. we have a very unified front going on. there's been tragedies but we're trying to minimize that by working together and everybody is doing a good job. >> thank you for your time. all the best this evening.

>> let's go to new york. sandy is being blamed for the deaths of at least five people there. spokesperson for governor cuomo says one man died when a tree fell on his home. mandatory evacuations are in effect for most parts of city. >> whoa knew this was going to be a dangerous storm and the storm has met our expectations. the worst of the weather has come and the city certainly is feeling the impacts at the battery we have seen record surge levels. seeing extraordinary amount of water throughout lower manhattan. there are trees down throughout the city. the bad news is con ed is experiencing power outages. >> lower lying areas in manhattan could see extraordinary amounts of water. that includes the city's public

transit system where flooding has been confirmed inside some subway stations. i want to go to wabc reporter who was on the scene when nearly an entire city block in queens caught fire. thanks for being with us. tell us exactly where you are and what you saw as this all started. >> i'm in a place called rockaway park. this is part of queens, essentially an island wedged between jamaica bay and the atlantic ocean, south of brooklyn, south of manhattan. with the storm at high tide tonight, both jamaica bay and atlantic ocean converged. there was water -- seemed like the water was everywhere. then another problem popped up and that was a major fire. there was a fire in this area of rockaway park consuming not only businesses but apartment

buildings as well. this is a flood-prone area. yet there were still residents here. they hadn't heeded the calls to evacuate. they were here. they were going to ride out the storm and then this fire happened and members of this specialized new york fire department had to go in and rescue them. i saw these guys. they were about five to ten of them, wading through high water. they had zodiac boat with them. they had to scale some of these buildings to get to some of the people trapped in their apartment buildings. because of the high water, the fire department couldn't get hoses and any water on these fires. just because it was at the height of the storm. these members of this specialized unit had to go in without all that, wade through the high water, scale some

buildings, break through windows, get into apartments and usher some of these residents down into the water and walk them through the water to higher ground. there wasn't a lot of high ground to find but they were able to find some and got people out. we're talking as many as 30 to 40 people rescued over the course of about three or four hours. right now as the water has receded, the fire department has been able to get water on this fire, so they're hoping that it doesn't spread further. one firefighter was telling me they think four, five buildings have been consumed by this fire. >> you say they're trying to get water on the fire. that leads me to believe it's still burning? >> it is. the danger is the concern it will continue to spread with embers blowing in the wind. there are other fires popping up

in the area andle concern is they won't get this under control and soon, it could spread causing more damage. >> it might be too soon to know this because all of this is going on, but about 30 to 40 people pulled out, any information on the condition of the people pulled out? have you gotten any information about that? >> as far as the rescuers i've spoken with, they think they've been able to get everyone out in the path of the fire. i've seen these folks come out. there don't appear to be any serious injuries. minor injuries, nothing too serious. firefighters believe they were able to get to these people before it was too late. >> any idea how this fire started? >> at the height of the storm it was high tide about 8:00 here.

the water was coming up. the wind was howling, blowing, maybe sustained winds around 70 to 80 mild an hour according to our meteorologists. as a result of that, there were power lines that were popping. some of these firefighters that i spoke with suspect that maybe it was electrical. maybe it had something to do with power lines in the area getting blown around. >> in rockaway park where that block in queens is on fire. thank you. we'll take a quick break and our continuing coverage will continue.

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storm, overall involving at least ten states under states of emergency. we're talking about 5.6 million people without power. many of whom are in lower manhattan. you can see how the water started coming up around 8:00 eastern time. good surge of 14 people feet in places. chris welsh, we hear nyu hospital has been evacuated because that generator went down and mt. sinai, i understand, is taking in a lot of those patients. where are you we aren't seeing high water but seeing a lot of debris. >> reporter: nyu, bellevue hospital next to each other. nyu, we've been told, has been looking for replacement hospitals for 200 patient they've trying to find a new home for as a result of some of these floods. we don't know exactly what happened, flood in the basement, generator issue that's causing them trouble with 200 patients

but we know they're being moved, having trouble with phones although nyu. hospitals will be calling family members, letting them know where new patients are going. i'm in the lower east side of manhattan on east houston and avenue d. where i am, about two hours ago when we first got here, the water would have been right here on me. now over the last hour, hour and a half it has steadily receded. i'm not sure how well you can see that mini van but where the water level is right now, add maybe a foot to that. the officers on the said if you go further back, the water was about 3 1/2 feet high. the other thing i want to mention, it's complete darkness. other than our lights and scattered police siren lights, there may be faint ones behind me, that's the only kind of power, the only lights we're

seeing right now because a couple, two, three hours ago everything went dark. there's a couple reasons for that. con edison, the power company, preemptively shut off the power for these heavily hit areas before things got too serious. what also happened here, there is a transformer located several blocks north of where we are. an explosion there. residents in the area said they saw flashes of light and heard three loud booms. as soon as that happened, their power went out and they said it was complete darkness. as we were driving down here, as soon as we got to about 34th street and everything further south, complete darkness. everyone driving very carefully. those who were on the road driving very carefully. a lot of people outside taking a look at what's going on because as you know, a lot of people have not left the city. >> you talked to a lot of people, you at east houston and avenue d, but that's not zone "a," is it, where people were under mandatory evacuation, does

that explain why so many people are still in that area? >> it's essentially right on the edge. a lot of people who are friends that live down here, we haven't been able to go down there because the roads are too dangerous to go in the dark. but the folks who live further this way where it was drying say they know a lot of people who lived down here who stayed. they didn't feel they were at that big of a risk. the folks who stayed, in other zones that haven't been evacuated, you know, were down here checking out the scene. one guy was like, you know, we don't see this kind of thing here very often, as you know, this is not something that happens in new york. pitch darkness, water from the east river coming up this far. one guy said, you smell that? you can smell the ocean water. that's not usually something you can smell this far from the east river. >> chris, thanks in lower manhattan. roughly, over 300,000 people in that zone "a" area in new york were asked to leave -- more a

demand from mayor bloomberg to leave those areas. many found out they did not and finding out their hot water as well as heat because the mayor warned that would happen. many will be miserable. hopefully they're safe and not going to put other people's lives in jeopardy because they stayed. >> i've been on twitter and people in manhattan said that steam heat was shut down on sunday as a precaution so they wouldn't have problems going out and creating problem. with sandy, ripping through a wide swath of big cities along the east coast, we're going to break down the situation state by state. and this is a reality for residents in connecticut right now. sandy has killed at least one person and injured two in connecticut. entire waterfront communities are submerged under water and 350,000 people are without power. the total from the storm, 5.6 million and counting. the already high storm surge

from sandy are only being made worse by the full moon. governor dan malloy says authorities are bracing for surges up to 11 feet above normal high tide. the governor says connecticut could face unprecedented damages. >> this is the most catastrophic event that we have faced and been able to plan for in any of our lifetimes. >> heavy rain and flooding and strong winds slammed our nation's capital today. leading to the closing of all federal buildings through tuesday. the president also declared a state of emergency for the district of columbia. chris is the director of district of columbia emergency home management. joining us by phone. >> we've had several trees down, upwards of the neighborhood of 200 trees down. that's just reports coming in. we haven't been able to do true

damage assessment yet. >> we know at some point in these storms it becomes unsafe for crews to go out and respond and start to clean up. have we passed that time? are you starting the clean-up yet? we lost chris. as he said, more than 200 trees down in the district of columbia. >> new jersey is getting pounded, quite frankly. new reports, new details coming out of that state. we're live throughout the night as sandy continues to pound the region. obviously. haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala! smooth, but crisp. it's kind of like drinking a food that's a drink, or a drink that's a food, woooooh! [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. could've had a v8.

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sandy continues to battery the east coast. >> a dozen deaths reported in the u.s. flooded streets. thousands have had to evacuate. >> cnn special coverage continues next. eveverery y titimeme o of f. ououtdtdoooorsrs, , oro. trtranansisititiononss® ls auautotomamatiticacalllly y fift ththe e ririghght t amamouountn. soso y youou s seeee e eveg ththe e waway y itit is memeanant t toto b be e ses. mamaybybe e evevenen a lilittttlele b betette. exexpeperirienencece l lifife e, asask k fofor r trtrananss adadapaptitiveve l lene.

we've been concentrating on the new york and new jersey area which we'll get back to. washington, d.c. has had problems of its own. you tried to talk to the director of district of columbia homeland security management. we have him back on the phone. >> how are things now? pick up where you left off. >> sure. as i mentioned before we got cut off, we have 200 trees down right now. those are just reports we get from residents calling in. we haven't had the opportunity due to storm conditions to get out and do a full citywide damage assessment. that won't happen until earlier this morning when wind levels come down and we can get out there and take a look. >> that was my question i was going into. times in storms when it's unsafe to send people out because you put yourselves in danger trying to save others. i guess we're still at that time

in d.c., chris. >> right. the way the storm is acting here, we've got a high tide in the potomac just after 9:00 this morning. we'll crest at that time in the potomac. from the models we've been running and what we've been seeing on the surge in the water, we could see some pretty significant flooding from that. a day and a half later, as all the water comes down from the storm in the west, we'll have flooding again. we're looking at about 11 -- just over 11 feet of flooding in our georgetown areas which would put us inundating a pretty good amount of the city from there, too. >> director of district of columbia homeland security and management, thanks for that. we'll check back later this morning. torrential downpours, whipping winds, flooded roads, you name it. >> don't forget, the snow. and sandy is dumping a lot of snow. west virginia is getting covered. virginia is seeing blizzard-like conditions. look at these pictures from the

same storm that brought the tornado up the coast. live conch of superstorm sandy continues through the night right here on cnn. ngs? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. dad vo: ok, time for bed, kiddo. lights out. ♪ (sirens)

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that appears on your screen. parts of new york city subway system are flooded. >> and authorities in new york have warned people all day to get to higher ground and do it fast. >> cnn special conch of this superstorm continues next. rs bis in just 15 minutes the light delicate layers add a layer of warmth to your next dinner. pillsbury grands biscuits let the making begin. starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors.

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we've said it before, no hype, no overestimates on sandy. damage is estimated to be in the billions because this storm is big and powerful and a killer. at paes 12 people reported dead, 5 in new york. 23 states under high wind warnings and advisories and cnn estimates the damage just from the wind could top $3 billion. don't forget, the storm is

already responsible for 67 deaths in the caribbean. >> take a look at this. unfortunately, a very common scene right now. roads are flooded. the water rising above cars in some parts. approximately five hours ago this superstorm made landfall over the most populated areas of the united states. a wind damage, power outages, storm surges, inland flooding, even snowstorms are threatening the lives and homes of 60 million people from virginia to massachusetts. >> let's stay with the wind because we have to show people what's happening on the west side of new york. this crane is above a luxury manhattan skyscraper still being built. the 70th floor. this is going up to 90. this is one57. it snapped earlier and now the boom is swinging back and forth in the wind. nobody knows right now how long this will hold up. let's get to it. ivan cabrera joins us with the latest on this superstorm. when we spoke with an expert as

the storm was coming up the koeshgs coast, he told us this could be bad or catastrophic. where are we on that spectrum? >> it depends on where you live right now? some folks will categorize this as catastrophic. you mention the crane. winds 40 to 50 miles an hour at the surface but up where the crane is, we could be gusting upwards of 50 to 60, and we'll be on crane watch closely. officials have evacuated that area. when you see these yellow and orange coming in here. those bands get contained. gusty wind, 40 to 50 miles an hour. we'll show you the wind gust in a second. we have the other story here, the big snow. it is snowing incredibly across the higher elevations right now of west virginia, heading into tennessee, virginia as well. we'll be talking about that.

look at the wind gust. this is what i was referring to here. again, the storm is inland but this is a nontropical system now. we're not expecting winds to subside. 40 to 50-mile-an-hour wind gusts to continue. let's recap. 11.62 inches as far as rainfall. we're talking a foot of rainfall in some areas. the winds have been accompanied with that rain so the rain has been coming sideways. 94 miles per hour. it keeps going. i won't think we'll see those for the remainder of tonight but into the 40 to 50-mile-an-hour range and snow has continued. upwards of 15 inches has fallen, more on the way. temperatures tonight, a lot of people without power, 5 million at this point. temperature will be very chilly. we were in atlanta, we could feel the wind coming through the walls in the house.

temperatures tonight will be in the 30s, no power. that combination is going to be uncomfortable if not worse. >> my goodness. where are these pictures from right here? this is incredible accumulation. >> absolutely. north carolina up into west virginia, snowshoe upward of 15 inches. ski resorts are loving this -- >> no one can get there. >> absolutely. >> we're dealing with an august hurricane and a january snowstorm all in one. unbelievable stuff. >> what a convergence. hence the name superstorm sandy. thanks, ivan. sandy is crippling not only the new england area, as you saw right there, also causing some problems. the superstorm is causing massive flooding, especially along parts of delaware's coast. that's where we find gary

tuchman tuchman. we know it's cold, with windy, what else is going on there? >> reporter: we know you rohobeth because you're from delaware, and people from washington come here over the summer. the good news for the tourists and especially people that live here year-round is that delaware appears to have done very well. >> the rain looks like it's going to stop for the first time in two days. there's a lot of concern here. grave concern over the last couple of days. because it appeared that this hurricane was heading directly towards here. the delmarva pennsylvania, and it's called delmarva because parts of three states are on the peninsula, delaware, maryland, virginia. it's very flat, very little natural protection for storms to come from the atlantic ocean. so, there was a lot of concern.

this storm ended up going 40 miles to the north. the weaker part of the storm, the left part of the storm, hit here. there is some damage here. we see flooded streets, flooded houses, vehicles under water but as far as the devastation we see during lots of hurricanes, we don't see it here, population 1300 year-round but tens of thousands during the summer. more storms in the future. very vulnerable area. one thing i want to mention, fredericka, something else you know on delmarva peninsula, virginia part of delmarva peninsula, asitege island has the largest population of wild ponies in every state east of the mississippi river. they swim from the island and then auctioned off to thin the

herd otherwise they would overrun the island. we worried about them all day how they would handle the hurricane. i don't know how they handled the hurricane but they have to because they're wild ponies. >> we're going to have to find out because that is a soft spot for so many people in that area who are familiar with that. the migration of the horses every year. thanks for bringing that up. i appreciate that. gary tuchman, we'll check back with you. so far, indeed, most places, new york and new jersey area, this has been a very damaging, very deadly, destructive storm. new reports continue to come in. >> cnn cruise stationed up and down the east coast, bringing you live updates on superstorm sandy. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management,

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to shape our curriculum. so that when you find the job you want you'll be a perfect fit. let's get to work. let's go to north carolina and a dramatic rescue at sea. a coast guard saving 14 members of the 16-person crew of the "hms bounty," a tall ship featured in "mutiny on the bounty" and "pirates of the caribbean," more recently. they were straned after the vessel took on too much water. one deck hand was found unresponsive and then declared dead. the captain is still missing. >> rains lashing the barrier island. 4 to 7 inches of rain are expected to fall over the days

with some spots getting 8 or even perhaps more inches of rain. a state of emergency has been declared for 24 counties. >> millions of people have been dealing with the storm over the weekend and for days, but the storm itself officially hit ground in new jersey. the jersey shore just a few hours ago. sandy has been taking a deadly toll, unleashing extremely dangerous wind, surge, floodwaters still happening now. more than 1.1 million people in new jersey alone with without power. police say at least three people have died from fallen trees there. two of the deaths in minden township, west of new york city. new jersey governor chris christie warned residents over and over about potential dangers earlier. >> i'm very disappointed in the fact some decided to disregard my destruction, in fact, my

order, and i'm concerned it might lead to the loss of life. >> also tonight reports of homes flooding under several feet of water. and the water in some areas still coming in. several rescues under way. including people stranded in their cars, trying to get away. >> i'm scared to death. so many people are going to die today. >> authorities are working to evacuate hundreds of people from west atlantic city where waters are dangerously high. >> let's go to new york where sandy is being blamed for the deaths of at least five people there. a spokesperson for governor cuomo says one of the victims died when a tree fell on his house in queens. right now mandatory evacuations are still in place for some parts of the city. mayor bloomberg warned, new york is well in the danger zone as expected. >> we knew this was going to be a very dangerous storm and the storm has met our expect takings. the worst of the weather has

come. and the city is certainly seeing the impact. we've seen record surge levels, extraordinary amount of water throughout lower manhattan. there are trees down throughout the city. con ed is experiencing power outages on an extremely wide basis. >> the mayor added some low-lying areas in manhattan could see extraordinary amounts of water. that's coming to fruition. we've seen record levels in parts of manhattan in parts of new york city, including the city's public transit system where saltwater has been confirmed flooding the subway stations. >> check out these images from west virginia. it's very hard to digest but we're talking serious snow. our forecasters have said this will be a convergence of the hurricane, wind and rain and

this almost like anothnor easie bringing snow. virginia governor bob mcdonald spoke to piers earlier about the weather impacts on his stay. >> we're going into day three-plus down into southeast virginia. started raining saturday night. they've had significant flooding around nor folk afolk and virgi beach. another 3 or 4 inches of rain expected. the western part of the state, we have blizzard conditions in the mountains with up to a foot or more of snow expected and wind gusts of 40 to 50 miles an hour. it's a vast array of weather affecting the entire state. >> as much as a foot of snow. that being matched by a foot of rain in some parts of virginia as well. >> and the mid-atlantic sandy is

just scraping the coast there. dealing with -- it's ripping sand from the beaches and damaging a lot of property there. parts of delaware's coast are dealing with significant flooding. look at these pictures. got dicey today. the national guard and local authorities have-h to rescue a lot of people there who tried to just ride out the storm and they did not leave. >> earlier, delaware's governor spoke with our brian todd about his biggest fears. >> my biggest worry is the loss of power which i think will increase significantly over the next several hours. the fact it could take a week or more before people get their power back on. >> based on latest numbers, almost 75,000 people are currently without power in delaware. now, compared to other states, that might seem like a small number but think about the population of delaware. that's a lot of people by percentage. president obama has already declared a state of emergency for delaware. >> rhode island operating under

a state of emergency. the emergency management agency is warning all residents to brace for pro longed power outages there. sandy forced public schools in providence and state capital to close on monday. right now nearly 120,000 people have lost power in rhode island. so, some of new york's biggest stars are going solo because of sandy. here's something that you don't hear that often. jimmy fallon will be doing his without an audience. this should be rather interesting, or probably was interesting. as well as david letterman doing the same thing. we're not used to seeing their shoes without hearing -- no, you know what, we're not used to seeing them without hearing an audience in the background. so, the show must go on. all right. as predicted, the damage from sandy came in pretty fast. almost one right after the

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surge and wind and snow and thundersnow. >> it's a terrible combination. >> all of this in one storm. we really won't know the true picture of sandy until daylight. here's why we're on live. because every passing hour we get new details of the damage. and the fresh numbers of the

power outages. unfortunately, more deaths. so far we know at least 13 people now are dead. nine in the tri-state area. five in new york. three in new jersey. one in connecticut. three other lives lost in west virginia, pennsylvania and another on the "hms bounty" off the coast of north carolina. remember, this storm is already responsible for killing 67 people in the caribbean. >> the u.s. military has been preparing to help with response to sandy and working to protect its own equipment. >> over the weekend the national guard had approximately 1500 forces on active duty in new york, massachusetts, delaware, connecticut and maryland. their troops are assisting local first responders and the federal emergency management agency with route clearance, search and rescue equipment and supplies, delivery and evacuations, you name it, they're doing

everything. in addition to aiding in the response, the military has been moving aircraft and ships to avoid damage during the storm. >> so, this could -- will have a big effect on the economy where sandy could delay release of monthly jobs report. that comes at a critical time because you know this is the final snapshot of the nation's job market before the presidential election. live reports, we'll keem them coming up and down the east coast as sandy continues to rip down power lines and flood communities and cause some evacuations. >> we are watching the storm very closely for you all night. the next hour of cnn special coverage of this superstorm sandy begins right now. hello, i'm victor blackwell. >> i'm fredericka. we want to welcome our international